We were visiting our sister Fee and so decided to have a photo shoot, including Baby Alice, on the lounge room floor.
It was too good an opportunity, really. Here is Keith, with Alice, who decided to wear the cardigan I made her for my visit today. I think this photo will make Keith's girlfriend melt.
And here they are again. I'm pretty sure Fee saw the great potential in a pi blanket as a play space for a baby.
So this is my second Pi Blanket (pattern from Elizabeth Zimmermann's Knitter's Almanac, which features a laceweight pi shawl).
The first, for Sean, was finished almost exactly a year ago. This time, I went for 12ply (worsted weight) Bendigo Rustic (in Red Tweed) instead of 8ply. This one took me exactly a month - April 24 to May 24. It's really so fast, all that going round and around.
As earlier stated, I ran out of wool. Thanks to a helpful Raveller, I managed to get a little extra and it is so close in shade you can barely tell. I thought I had lost the yarn label but I found it today and saw that the donated wool is only one dyelot away from the original. No wonder it's a good match.
Here's me with Alice. Note the hair. It's getting the chop tomorrow. Can't wait.
And a final shot of Alice pointing at her mummy. Too cute huh?
I really can't recommend pi blankets enough. They are pretty, they are fast, they are clever. They grow like the clappers and are wonderfully versatile. Two of these is not enough. There will be more, and of course, no doubt made from the Bendigo Woollen Mills staple, Rustic. It's such a great wool for blankets. Sturdy, warm, washes up beautifully.
Oh and on the washing issue, I really needed this be dry quickly and at this time of year, when it's cold, that's easier said than done. A bit of twittering on Sunday morning when I was contemplating what to do lead to a great tip from Julie. I had always thought that putting woollens in the washing machine on the spin cycle was a recipe for disaster, but apparently not. Think about it, how much movement actually happens once that item is plastered to the side of the barrel? Practically none.
So I washed it in the bath, rinsed it and tossed it into the washing machine. It emerged much less waterlogged than if I had just squeezed it out in a towel. Overnight, in our study on towels, it was totally dry. Can't beat that!
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